Redis is already persistent storage, and the parameter :pathyou found is to specify the unix socket to use to work with the Redis server instead of the TCP connection (supported in Redis 2.2), and not to indicate the actual database file.
You are trying to have a separate database, so that when you install r['foo'] = 'bar', s['foo']still returns nil?
, Redis , # 0 ( , /0 connected to redis://127.0.0.1:6379/0). :
r = Redis.new
=>
r['foo'] = 'bar'
s = Redis.new(:db => 1)
=>
s['foo']